We went and got our taxes done. In the past we have always paid 500 to 5000. I and my friends prayed that it would be the amount we still owed our agency which was 3600.00. I told the girl when I went in that I needed 3600.00 and the IRS could make it out to ABI and get a tax credit. As she was doing the taxes she keep re- adding. She ask if I was ready to write down my return amount. I got out my note pad and she said I needed a bigger piece of paper. It was for 3636.00. She was in shock at the amount because it was almost for what I told her. I told her we had prayed and God had answered. To him be the glory. Now we just have a few other fees.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Flip Flop to help raise adoption funds.
I and a few friends have been busy making these to help with my adoption fees. All sales will go into my adoption fund. They are $8.00 each. I have lots of colors and sizes. They will be in Bowling Green at the Duck Duck Goose consignment sale Spring / Summer Event March 24th - 28th, 2011 Open Daily 10am -8pm; Closed Sunday
Please go sign this. For all the familys adopting Ethiopian children.
http://jcics.itsac.com/joint-council-emergency-campaign-for-ethiopian-children/
Joint Council Emergency Campaign for Ethiopian Children
3/8/11
Joint Council recently released a Statement regarding the announcement by the Ethiopian Ministry of Women’s, Children’s and Youth Affairs plan to reduce intercountry adoption by 90%. The Statement can be found on our blog by clicking here. As part of our continued advocacy, Joint Council has launched an Emergency Campaign for Ethiopian Children. The details of the Campaign can be found below. Please share this information with your friends, family, colleagues, and adoptive families. The Call to Action can also be found on our blog.
We hope you will join us in advocating for the continuation of intercountry adoption in Ethiopia.
Joint Council: Emergency Campaign for Ethiopian Children
What You Can Do:
1) Sign the petition to the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi – and pass it on!
2) Have you adopted from Ethiopia? Please send us up to 3 photos and 50 words or less with what you would like the Ministry to know about your child – we’ll compile the information and send a book to the Ministry of Woman’s Affairs. Send your photos and stories to advocate@jointcouncil.org by Sunday, March 12, 2011 to be included. Please note that sending photos and stories gives Joint Council unrestricted right to use the information you provide.
3) Share…Please send this Call to Action to family members, other adoptive parents, and everyone you know! Post, forward and share your adoption stories via Facebook, Twitter, and blogs. Make sure you include us in your posts so we can all hear your stories! Here’s links to our pages: Facebook, Twitter and our blog.
4) Stay informed: Get up-to-date information regarding the situation in Ethiopia by signing up to receive information from us: click here to do so, make sure you choose “country and issues specific information” and “Ethiopia.” And don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and our blog!
5) Help ensure our advocacy can continue: Joint Council is a non-profit and receives no government funding. Please join us in ensuring more children live in safe, permanent and loving families
Joint Council Emergency Campaign for Ethiopian Children
3/8/11
Joint Council recently released a Statement regarding the announcement by the Ethiopian Ministry of Women’s, Children’s and Youth Affairs plan to reduce intercountry adoption by 90%. The Statement can be found on our blog by clicking here. As part of our continued advocacy, Joint Council has launched an Emergency Campaign for Ethiopian Children. The details of the Campaign can be found below. Please share this information with your friends, family, colleagues, and adoptive families. The Call to Action can also be found on our blog.
We hope you will join us in advocating for the continuation of intercountry adoption in Ethiopia.
Joint Council: Emergency Campaign for Ethiopian Children
What You Can Do:
1) Sign the petition to the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi – and pass it on!
2) Have you adopted from Ethiopia? Please send us up to 3 photos and 50 words or less with what you would like the Ministry to know about your child – we’ll compile the information and send a book to the Ministry of Woman’s Affairs. Send your photos and stories to advocate@jointcouncil.org by Sunday, March 12, 2011 to be included. Please note that sending photos and stories gives Joint Council unrestricted right to use the information you provide.
3) Share…Please send this Call to Action to family members, other adoptive parents, and everyone you know! Post, forward and share your adoption stories via Facebook, Twitter, and blogs. Make sure you include us in your posts so we can all hear your stories! Here’s links to our pages: Facebook, Twitter and our blog.
4) Stay informed: Get up-to-date information regarding the situation in Ethiopia by signing up to receive information from us: click here to do so, make sure you choose “country and issues specific information” and “Ethiopia.” And don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and our blog!
5) Help ensure our advocacy can continue: Joint Council is a non-profit and receives no government funding. Please join us in ensuring more children live in safe, permanent and loving families
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Today
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
I-600
Today our I-600 went in the mail. One more thing signed, notorized, paid, and mailed. I love when I get things done. It makes it feel like one more step closer to getting the girls.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Haiti 2010 Thank you
January 12th, 2010 changed the nation of Haiti forever. Chris’ life and mine were also forever changed. It is so hard for us to be here in America when our hearts are in Haiti. As I write this, we just got home from a month stay there. This was my fourth time and Chris's third trip to Haiti and all together we have spent over 2 ½ months there in the past year. We have had the opportunity to serve the people there in many ways. We have fed, clothed, bathed, wiped noses, played, danced, laughed, cried, supplied medical care, helped build, and helped tear down. On the last trip, we met & fell in love with a little girl named Leila who had AIDS, TB, and heart problems & then before we returned the third time to see her, we found out she had died. Thus, we found ourselves mourning the loss of a little girl we had only begun to get to know. Life is so fragile. We came upon an orphanage with over 40 children who had not eaten in four days. We immediately pooled our funds together to feed them. When we got there, two of the maybe 10-year-old boys were twelve feet down, digging a hole for a place to use the bathroom. Later, they used this by placing a board on top with a hole in it. At another place, I saw kids on the verge of death, so sick, with bodies nothing but bones. This place felt like a dungeon. It reminded us of a concentration camp for small children. They all had numbers written on their arms that matched the number on their crib. Some were five years old in the cribs. The pain in their eyes was more than one can bear. I will never forget how one little girl grabbed at me and clawed to hold on for dear life when I went to put a back in her crib. As I put her back, all I could think was how wrong this was. She is just a number, a baby girl waiting for death to take her, with no mother, father, or family to hold her close. To the workers she seemed to be only number 4. She was 7 months old I am guessing she weighed maybe 9 to 10 lbs. I thought of how she is a daughter of the most high, wonderfully made, of how she should be cherished, not hungry and dying. I want to change life for as many of these children as I can. I am back home now and seem out of place here in my easy, comfortable, boring American life.
The kids digging the hole for the new bathroomWhen I first went to Haiti, God had even bigger plans for us than we could have ever imagined. We are in the process of adopting two beautiful Haitian girls. If all goes as planned, their adoption will be completed some time this year. We are praying for the fastest adoption in Haitian history. It’s so strange to think that on June 26th 1999 in a the city of Port-Au-Prince, Haiti in an area know as Delmas our 1st daughter was born.(Rosika) Then on December 16th 2004, we had another daughter (Daphnica) born in the mountains in Kenscoff, Haiti. I was not there for either birth, but God was and He knew that someday they would be orphans and need a family. We are so blessed that he has chosen us to be their parents. We were with Daphnica for her 6th birthday. We do not want to miss out on anymore of their lives. We miss them so much. They were so sad when we left, as were we. One day at breakfast, the little one said to me, “Manman I will never forget you” and we will never forget them. They are truly our girls. I cannot imagine life without them. I look forward to the day I am with them again. I am amazed at what God has done. My bible verse for last year was Isaiah 43: 18 -19 “Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.”
This has all been possible because of your support and prayers. If you would like to help the children of Haiti, we will be going back to Haiti 3-4 times this year. We hope to help build 2-3 classrooms and they will cost $1000.00 each. We are in the process of helping one Orphanage to get their van running & we have raised $700.00 so far, but we still need $1100.00. One orphanage needs a propane stove. We need funds to buy food and cooking coal for the orphanages when we return. We have seen so many children with no shoes and children wearing shoes that are too big, too small, or held together by wire or tape with their toes hanging out. Some of the little girls would roll up a piece of cloth and pretend it was their baby doll. So, we are also collecting shoes and baby dolls to take back with us. There is so much need when we go, but when I have seen the effects of hunger in the eyes of a child, I have to try to help.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
IBESR
Today is a happy day in the Wood house at 11:33 am we got the call saying that we made it into IBESR. I am so happy. It is a start in a still long process. Below is what still has to happen before we get the girls. Please help us pray that things will continue to move fast.
IBESR and Dispensation
Your dossier can now be submitted to IBESR. If your family does not meet the criteria of the law of 1974, your dossier can be pre-approved for Presidential Dispensation and delivered to the Presidential Palace by IBESR. Dispensations are published in the Haitian legal journal Le Moniteur. Following Dispensation, IBESR will sign off on your dossier and grant an Authorization of Adoption.
Parquet Court
The 'step' we refer to as Parquet court is actually a very complex series of steps and processes involving multiple offices and repeated trips between them.
1.Attorney addresses a Request for Judgment to the Chief Justice of Parquet Court
2.Birth parents are interviewed in Parquet Court
3.Parquet Court signs off on "approval judgement for adoption
4.Facilitator takes approval to DGI for stamp of authorization
5.Back to Parquet for enforcement of the approval judgement
6.Authorization and redaction from the Civil Registrar Officer for legal Adoption Decree
7.Verification in Parquet of the adoption documents by the Civil Registrar before signing the adoption decree
8.First Legalization of the Adoption Decree, in Parquet Court
9.Second Legalization of the Adoption Decree, at the Ministry of Justice
10.Third Legalization of the Adoption Decree, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
11.Obtain attestation of Adoption Decree from the National Archives
Ministry of the Interior
All international adoption cases are reviewed by the Ministry of Interior. In order to obtain authorization to request a passport, the following documents must be submitted for each child:
1.Four passport sized pictures
2.Birth Certificate
3.Attestation for the Birth Certificate
4.Extract from the National Archives for the Birth Certificate
5.Relinquishment
6.Proces Verbal of adoption
7.Adoption approval judgement
8.Adoption Decree
9.Attestation of the Adoption Decree
10.Power of Attorney for creche director and/or attorney
11.Stamp from DGI
12.Notary letter for the passport
13.Identification card of facilitator and/or attorney on the case
14.Biological parents' identification cards
15.Adoptive parents' MOI form, identification, and passport photos
The Ministry of Interior will grant authorization to submit the dossier to Haitian Immigrations for a passport.
Haitian Immigrations
The facilitator will submit authorization to apply for a passport to Haitian Immigrations. This is generally a quick process - one to two weeks, if all equipment is working properly.
US Immigrations
Note to international readers - US Immigrations performs the most rigorous investigation of international adoptions. Other nations' Immigrations process are different. Please check with your agency to learn about the process for your home country.)
Parts of the US Immigrations process can occur concurrently with the Haitian process, however USCIS cannot sign off on the case until they have verified the final Adoption Decree and the child's passport. DNA may be requested at any time.
American families are advised to work closely with their agencies to ensure a smooth and efficient US Immigrations process for their child.
Approximately three to four weeks following completion of all USCIS investigations and adjudication of the I600 for the child, the case will be forwarded to the Department of State for issuance of a Visa. The Department of State also has the right to request DNA testing for birth parent and child. Adoptive parents need not be present for the Visa appointment.
Parents who can prove that they visited their child prior to the issuance of the Adoption Decree by Parquet Court will be issued an IR-3 Visa. Their children will be automatically granted full US Citizenship upon arrival in the US.
Families who did not visit their children prior to the date of the Adoption Decree must file for citizenship for their children. Failure to file for citizenship will leave the child as a legal immigrant and unprotected by the rights of full citizenship. Please refer to the USCIS website for form N-600 and instructions on how to file.
Summary
These steps were provided by Margarette Saint Fleur of BRESMA orphanage. All legitimate adoptions facilitators must follow each one of them, and must do so under extremely difficult conditions.
Haitian adoptions take far, far too long. Children wait in orphanages for months and even years while the adoption proceedings drag on. And yet, when we look at the immensely complicated process, we must realize what a miracle it is when each child comes home.
IBESR and Dispensation
Your dossier can now be submitted to IBESR. If your family does not meet the criteria of the law of 1974, your dossier can be pre-approved for Presidential Dispensation and delivered to the Presidential Palace by IBESR. Dispensations are published in the Haitian legal journal Le Moniteur. Following Dispensation, IBESR will sign off on your dossier and grant an Authorization of Adoption.
Parquet Court
The 'step' we refer to as Parquet court is actually a very complex series of steps and processes involving multiple offices and repeated trips between them.
1.Attorney addresses a Request for Judgment to the Chief Justice of Parquet Court
2.Birth parents are interviewed in Parquet Court
3.Parquet Court signs off on "approval judgement for adoption
4.Facilitator takes approval to DGI for stamp of authorization
5.Back to Parquet for enforcement of the approval judgement
6.Authorization and redaction from the Civil Registrar Officer for legal Adoption Decree
7.Verification in Parquet of the adoption documents by the Civil Registrar before signing the adoption decree
8.First Legalization of the Adoption Decree, in Parquet Court
9.Second Legalization of the Adoption Decree, at the Ministry of Justice
10.Third Legalization of the Adoption Decree, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
11.Obtain attestation of Adoption Decree from the National Archives
Ministry of the Interior
All international adoption cases are reviewed by the Ministry of Interior. In order to obtain authorization to request a passport, the following documents must be submitted for each child:
1.Four passport sized pictures
2.Birth Certificate
3.Attestation for the Birth Certificate
4.Extract from the National Archives for the Birth Certificate
5.Relinquishment
6.Proces Verbal of adoption
7.Adoption approval judgement
8.Adoption Decree
9.Attestation of the Adoption Decree
10.Power of Attorney for creche director and/or attorney
11.Stamp from DGI
12.Notary letter for the passport
13.Identification card of facilitator and/or attorney on the case
14.Biological parents' identification cards
15.Adoptive parents' MOI form, identification, and passport photos
The Ministry of Interior will grant authorization to submit the dossier to Haitian Immigrations for a passport.
Haitian Immigrations
The facilitator will submit authorization to apply for a passport to Haitian Immigrations. This is generally a quick process - one to two weeks, if all equipment is working properly.
US Immigrations
Note to international readers - US Immigrations performs the most rigorous investigation of international adoptions. Other nations' Immigrations process are different. Please check with your agency to learn about the process for your home country.)
Parts of the US Immigrations process can occur concurrently with the Haitian process, however USCIS cannot sign off on the case until they have verified the final Adoption Decree and the child's passport. DNA may be requested at any time.
American families are advised to work closely with their agencies to ensure a smooth and efficient US Immigrations process for their child.
Approximately three to four weeks following completion of all USCIS investigations and adjudication of the I600 for the child, the case will be forwarded to the Department of State for issuance of a Visa. The Department of State also has the right to request DNA testing for birth parent and child. Adoptive parents need not be present for the Visa appointment.
Parents who can prove that they visited their child prior to the issuance of the Adoption Decree by Parquet Court will be issued an IR-3 Visa. Their children will be automatically granted full US Citizenship upon arrival in the US.
Families who did not visit their children prior to the date of the Adoption Decree must file for citizenship for their children. Failure to file for citizenship will leave the child as a legal immigrant and unprotected by the rights of full citizenship. Please refer to the USCIS website for form N-600 and instructions on how to file.
Summary
These steps were provided by Margarette Saint Fleur of BRESMA orphanage. All legitimate adoptions facilitators must follow each one of them, and must do so under extremely difficult conditions.
Haitian adoptions take far, far too long. Children wait in orphanages for months and even years while the adoption proceedings drag on. And yet, when we look at the immensely complicated process, we must realize what a miracle it is when each child comes home.
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